Day #5--How do you carve your Jack O' Lantern(s)?

I think this is a great question. Everyone has their own traditions! One of ours is that J is in charge of the pumpkins.

This year, it was actually nice and unseasonably cool, so J was inspired to make hot apple cider. With cinnamon sticks.



I think Wombles will insist on this in future years.


First, J lays out the plan:
1. Sketch your pumpkin design.
2. Carve the pumpkin.

With Wombles, J drew different shapes and let him choose which ones he wanted, since Wombles isn't very "into" representational art just yet.

Here's Bud's sketch:



I'd show you Pixie's but she wrote her name on it: "[Pixie's] Pumkin." But I will show you her pumpkin, which had this cool winking eye (a result of her carving it herself). We were a little sad when she decided to change it the next day.
This year we got the special carving tools so that the kids could go it alone a little. This is how Pixie could safely make that winking eye. Bud worked really hard and did a lot of his himself.



We were thrilled when Wombles chose crescent-shaped eyes! Although he's not crescenting in this shot, he does it a LOT. Wombles' pumpkin actually resembled him quite a bit.



Congratulations, Bud! You finished!

Another of our traditions is that we roast the pumpkin seeds. They have now been sitting in our refrigerator for four days. We'll see.

Have any traditions you'd like to share?

Day #4--What is a Water Fairy Princess?

A water fairy princess is a special species of Pixie...obviously.

This is what she looks like before going out to work her magic:



This is what she looks like when she's dressed for serious Pixie-ing business:



And these are what we in our family call "crescent-eyes," and only come out on special occasions:

I think we first identified crescent-eyes about seven years ago. More on those later.

Day #3--Tell about a resentment you've gotten over.

I would have to say the bad rap that the month of November gets. My birthday is in November (today, actually) and all my life it's been the dreary month, charmingly demonstrated by the fact that calendar-makers worldwide put the "ugly" picture on November. It's true. Don't believe me? Go check. It may just be that you never had any reason to pay attention to November!

Ahem.

Exhibit A: The April and May months from next year's calendar.



Exhibit B: November.



Not to slam on Muskoxen, but come on.

I remember reading Little Women for the first time and coming to the chapter that opens with (paraphrase) "November is the very worst month!" I closed my eyes in frustration and rested the book. When I opened my eyes again, I read the next sentence: "That's why I was born in it." Thanks, Jo.

However, living where we do now, November is one of the best months. Perhaps the clearest skies of the year with crisp mornings but lovely and warm (92 today). I finally get to have summer for my birthday, and I'm lovin' it.


So, take THAT, National Wildlife Federation!

**UPDATE: So, apparently I haven't actually gotten over my resentment. Or there would have been no "take that!" to a calendar publisher. At least I'm a bit removed from the temptation?

Day #2--What is a new challenge you've faced recently?

Raise your hand if you know what this is:



This is a stalk of brussel sprouts. J came home from Trader Joe's with them last week; it was $2.99! (Our CSA season has ended). That's a lot of veggie for $3. I don't know whether my challenge was (1) to not think he was crazy for coming home with such a thing, (2) to sound excited about the prospect of that many brussel sprouts, or (3) to remember whether I've ever even had brussel sprouts before.

No matter. They were delicious! And no, I did not (4) have to learn how to cook them. Yet.

30-Day Challenge

So, I hear from my beautiful sister over at Guffey Love that everyone is doing this 30-day blog challenge thing. That sounds interesting. And totally unfeasible. However, I talked with my Mimi on the phone today, and found out that she checks my blog regularly...which is reason enough, today, for me to give it a try. It means blogging every day for 30 days, and apparently doing so on a certain category or question. However, I could not find the Guff's (aka Cupcake) list of blog topics, so I'm using a different one. I'm sure her blog will be informative and entertaining; I hope mine will be coherent.

Day #1: How much laundry do you do in a week?

I'm not exactly sure, but I think we average a load each day. Some time back I got the idea of actually doing a load each day, but that involved the machines doing all the work and me not doing any...which in turn became our bedroom overrun with mounds of unfolded laundry.

Mostly little-boy laundry. It outnumbers little-girl laundry by about 14:1, in spite of the fact that they hold only 2:1 advantage.

Here is what our bed looks like right now:



Which means I should go and deal with it instead of blogging. See you tomorrow!

Life Is Good

In keeping with last night's bedtime theme, I have to say that going in to check on the kids before J and I go to bed is one of my favorite times of day. For all of the the fun, misadventure and loveliness during the day, there's something about sleeping babies (no matter how old they are) that is so powerful and attractive. J and I usually check on them together, and we often stand there and whisper about how sweet they are. I rumple the hair on their little heads and tell them that I love them. J pulls the blankets up on cool evenings.

They look so innocent, and sweet, and entirely incapable of shooting Nerf dart guns at each other at point-blank range and then (both) screaming with laughter.

I love quiet time and dandelions in vases, but for recharging my "affection batteries" nothing beats a little bedtime check-in!


Thanks for the reminder, Wombles.

Volcano Man

Although Volcano Man has been in our lives for a relatively short time, he has come to play a large role in bedtime.

Volcano Man came from a Happy Meal. When we drove to Quincy this summer, we let the kids get Happy Meals for their road food. They love getting the toy (can't open it until you're done eating!) and the apple dippers are a favorite. Volcano Man is from that trip.

Volcano Man lights up when you push a button. This enables the bearer to look at Star Wars sticker books and Lego catalogs after lights-out.




No wonder he's hugely popular.

I've been planning on giving a shout-out request for an accurate identification of Volcano Man, but after a quick Google search it appears that Volcano Man may actually be his name. Who knew?!